In the retail industry, the largest expenditures are typically the cost of the goods sold followed closely by the cost of labor expended. With particular regard to the retail grocery or supermarket industry, the impetus to reduce labor costs has focused on reducing or eliminating the amount of time required to handle and/or process the items or goods to be purchased by a customer. To this end, there have been a number of self-service checkout terminal concepts developed which attempt to substantially eliminate the need for a checkout clerk.
A self-service checkout terminal is a system which is operated by a customer or user without the aid of a checkout clerk. In such a system, the customer scans individual items for purchase across a scanner and then places the scanned item into a grocery bag, if desired. The customer then pays for his or her purchase either at the self-service checkout terminal if so equipped, or at a central payment area which is staffed by a store employee. Thus, a self-service checkout terminal permits a customer to select, itemize, and in some cases pay for his or her purchase without the assistance of the retailer's personnel.
A customer typically has little or no training in the operation of a self-service checkout terminal prior to his or her initial use of the checkout terminal. One concern that retailers have when evaluating a self-service checkout terminal is the level of supervision provided to inexperienced customers. Moreover, it is also known that some customers may have improper intentions when using a self-service checkout terminal. In traditional checkout systems, the clerk employed by the retailer to operate the checkout terminal provides a level of security against theft or other improprieties. However, in the case of a self-service checkout terminal, the terminal itself must provide the necessary security. Such security includes preventing a customer from either inadvertently or intentionally placing an item in a grocery bag without scanning the item, or voiding one item from entry, but removing a second item of lesser value, or no item at all, from the grocery bag. Thus, another concern when evaluating a self-service checkout terminal is the level of security provided against illicit use of the terminal by customers.
Therefore, self-service checkout terminals have heretofore been designed with security systems which monitor the use of the terminal. For example, weight scales have been incorporated into self-service checkout terminals to monitor the manner in which a customer handles or otherwise processes items during operation of the terminal. In addition, video systems, which include a number of video cameras, have been utilized in a number of self-service checkout terminals which have heretofore been designed. Such security systems typically monitor the customer's use of the terminal by maintaining a number of electronic logs or counters. In particular, if the security system detects a security violation (e.g. a weight change on one of the weight scales associated with an item being placed into a grocery bag without having first been properly entered in the terminal), a processing unit associated with the security system increments one or more electronic logs. Thereafter, the processing unit determines if the resultant value of the electronic log or logs equals or exceeds a predetermined threshold value associated therewith. It should be appreciated that during operation of the self-service checkout terminal, if the value of any of the electronic logs associated with the security system equals or exceeds its predetermined threshold, intervention by store personnel such as a customer service manager may be requested by the terminal.
Such security systems have a number of drawbacks associated therewith. For example, certain security systems which have heretofore been designed may disadvantageously reduce both the efficiency and throughput associated with the self-service checkout terminal. More specifically, certain security systems which have heretofore been designed require a customer to position an item in a particular area, such as a bagging area, after entry thereof into the terminal. Such a requirement allows the terminal to verify the identity of the item (e.g. by determining the weight of the item with a weight scale positioned in the bagging area and thereafter comparing the measured weight to a known weight), but may force the customer to perform an undesired, inefficient step during the checkout procedure. For example, if the customer scanned a pack of gum, the customer may wish to place the gum in his or her pocket, but may first be required to place the gum in the bagging area in order to weigh the gum prior to removing the gum from the bagging area and placing it in his or her pocket. It should be appreciated that such a requirement (i.e. placing the gum in the bagging area) increases the amount of time necessary to perform the transaction thereby decreasing the customer's efficiency during operation of the self-service checkout terminal.
In addition, if store personnel is summoned a number of times during a given checkout procedure as the result of the predetermined threshold values of one or more of the various electronic logs associated with the security system being exceeded, the amount of time necessary to complete the checkout procedure is increased thereby decreasing the customer's efficiency during operation of the self-service checkout terminal.
Moreover, it is known that a number of retailers disable the security system associated with certain self-service checkout terminals which have heretofore been designed as a result of such inefficiencies. In particular, during periods of time in which the terminal is experiencing relatively high usage, a number of retailers have been known to completely disable the security system associated with the self-service checkout terminal thereby disadvantageously allowing certain improprieties, such as theft or repeated unintentional misuse, to go undetected by the terminal.
What is needed therefore is a self-service checkout terminal which overcomes one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks. What is also needed is a self-service checkout terminal which adjusts this security level at which the terminal is being operated during periods of high usage so as to increase the efficiency of the terminal.